What this looks like in a property business
Gas safety certificates, EICRs and deposit protection deadlines all sit in one spreadsheet, colour-coded by hand, with calendar reminders set up alongside it as a backup. It worked when there were three properties to track. At eight, the same sheet has grown extra columns for each one, a date format that's inconsistent between rows added at different times, and a nagging feeling that one of these dates has quietly slipped past without anyone noticing.
The spreadsheet isn't badly built. It's being asked to do a job, firm compliance tracking with real legal consequences, that a single file maintained by one person was never really designed to carry at this scale, and the risk grows with every property added rather than shrinking.
The compliance dates that actually matter
A portfolio landlord is usually tracking several different clocks at once, each running on its own cycle. Taken together, this is what's sometimes called a landlord compliance checklist, and getting it right matters far more than any spreadsheet template does:
- Gas safety (CP12): an annual check on every property with a gas appliance, carried out by a Gas Safe registered engineer, with the certificate renewed every twelve months without a gap. (gov.uk guidance)
- Electrical safety (EICR): a full inspection roughly every five years, or sooner if the previous report flagged anything, confirming the wiring and fittings are safe. (gov.uk guidance)
- Deposit protection: once a deposit is taken, it generally has to be placed in a government-approved scheme (such as the DPS, mydeposits or TDS) within a set number of days, with prescribed information given to the tenant at the same time. (gov.uk guidance)
- EPC: an Energy Performance Certificate kept current for each let property, with minimum energy efficiency standards to be aware of when a certificate is due for renewal. (gov.uk guidance)
- Right to Rent rechecks: for tenants with time-limited permission to stay in the UK, a follow-up check is needed before their current permission expires, not a one-off done at move-in and forgotten. (gov.uk guidance)
Each of those has its own renewal clock, its own evidence to keep on file, and its own consequence for getting it wrong. A single spreadsheet tracking all of them for eight properties has eight times the chance of one row being wrong, out of date, or simply missed in a busy month. Our full landlord compliance checklist covers each of these in more depth, with what evidence to keep alongside the date.
Meet Chris
Chris is an illustrative example, a composite of the landlords we talk to. He's a portfolio landlord with eight properties, tracking gas safety, EICR and deposit deadlines on a spreadsheet and calendar reminders. "I'm genuinely worried I'll miss a renewal date buried in a row I haven't looked at in months."
How we'd fix it
- A CRM or simple system set up around your portfolio, with every property, tenancy and compliance date in one place rather than a colour-coded spreadsheet, and a document attached to each certificate so the evidence lives next to the date it relates to.
- An internal tool or dashboard if the portfolio's grown enough that compliance, rent and maintenance tracking together have outgrown a single spreadsheet entirely, letting agency-grade tools like Reapit, Alto or Arthur handle this at scale, but a lighter custom dashboard is often the better fit for a self-managed portfolio of this size.
- Automatic reminders that fire several weeks before a gas safety, EICR, EPC or deposit deadline, not the week it's due, so there's real time to book a contractor rather than scrambling.
- A clean import of your existing spreadsheet data, checked for duplicate or conflicting dates as part of the move, with the original spreadsheet kept as a backup until you trust the new system completely.
A note on changing tenancy rules
The Renters' Rights Act 2025 is moving most private tenancies in England towards a periodic model with fewer fixed end dates, alongside stronger written record-keeping expectations generally. We don't give legal advice, and exactly when each part of the Act takes effect for your tenancies is worth checking on gov.uk or with a body like the NRLA if you're unsure, since commencement is being phased in rather than happening all at once. Last checked: 7 October 2026. What we would say is that a system built to track dates and store documents properly makes it considerably easier to stay on top of whatever the current requirements are, rather than relying on remembering that something changed.
What it costs and how long
A CRM or simple system set up around your portfolio starts from £900 and typically takes two to four weeks. Importing your existing spreadsheet data as part of that move starts from £300. If the portfolio has grown enough to need something more than compliance tracking, such as rent and maintenance together, an internal tool or dashboard starts from £3,000. These are guide prices for a typical project. The fixed quote comes after a free 30-minute call.
What you get back
One reliable place for every compliance date across the portfolio, with reminders that actually fire ahead of a deadline rather than depending on noticing a row in time. The quiet worry of "have I missed one" stops being a background hum, because the system is watching the dates, not your memory. It won't make a Gas Safe engineer turn up any faster when you're already up against a deadline, which is exactly why the reminders fire weeks early rather than on the day.
Related
- General guide: The business runs on a spreadsheet that's creaking
- Sector page: Property
- Example project: a letting agent with a maintenance portal for tenants and landlords
- Guide: 7 signs your business has outgrown spreadsheets